Amelia Island auction — bring a fat checkbook

Florida’s Amelia Island hosts one of the two big-deal concours d’elegance held in America each year. (The other one is California’s Pebble Beach, in August.) But no major car-fest like this, with its multi-million dollar classics, would be complete without the attendant auctions to help whet the aficionado’s appetite.

Basically, it’s an opportunity for collectors to lighten their bank accounts and pick up more items for their garages. The first of two Amelia Island auctions is tomorrow (March 8, 2013) and Gooding & Co. is offering, among other jewels, a 1972 Ferrari 275GTB, a 1962 Porsche 356 Carrera 2, and a 1971 Oldsmobile 442 W-30 convertible. The Gooding catalogue can be found here. At the Saturday auction (March 9), RM Auctions will have a 1956 Ford Thunderbird, a 1952 Nash-Healey roadster and a 1934 Bentley 3.5-liter drophead coupe, and plenty of other classics. The RM catalogue can be seen here. The concours runs Friday through Sunday (March 8-10) and there is more information about that event here.